Sunday, December 8, 2013

Review- THE DAILY MIRROR BOOK OF GARTH 1975 ANNUAL

Collects
the following Garth
strips, originally published in The
Daily Mirror
newspaper: The Orb
Of Trimandias
(January 28- May 22, 1972), Ghost
Town (April 11-
July 12, 1973), Cloud
Of Balthus
(October 12, 1971- January 27, 1972), The
Women Of Galba
(December 27, 1972- April 10, 1973), Sundance
(July 11- October 11, 1971), and Wolf
Man Of Ausensee
(May 23- September 6, 1972)

Writer:
James Edgar

Artist:
Frank Bellamy

A
pox upon the denizens of the Masterworks Message Board! On the
surface that site is a place where collected editions obsessives
congregate to banter about books, play “fantasy football” by
mapping out wishlist future volumes, and complain and nitpick about
linework, restoration, and binding. Scratch the surface, though, and
you'll find some stalwart collectors lost in an addiction spiral,
encouraging and enabling one another in their endless acquisition of
books. Sure am glad I'm not one of them. Heh. One such thread pointed
out Book Palace's Heros The Spartan hardcover, which I have in
my possession and will open on Christmas. When I stumbled upon the
thread I was absolutely blown away by the artwork of Frank Bellamy.
An evening of researching his body of work resulted in my bidding on,
and ultimately winning, this book.

Garth
is a long running comic strip that was found in the UK newspaper
The Daily Mirror. This book just sort of begins, with events
presented in a way that readers should already be well aware of the
premise of the strip. I don't know, this series may have been popular
in England, but I cop an attitude with any comics that take it for
granted that a reader should already know what is going on.

Garth's
hyper sensitive psyche causes him to slip in time via a time spiral,
with his psyche inhabiting the body of others at various points in
time. In The Orb Of Trimandias Garth's psyche journeys to 16th
century Venice. In Ghost Town he journeys to 19th
century Colorado. Meanwhile, Cloud Of Balthus finds Garth
encountering the alien species the Cariads, who have kidnapped all of
the astronauts aboard a NASA space platform. Garth journeys into
space to rescue the astronauts while helping a Chinese spy ring steal
scientific secrets. This feels an awful lot like Moonraker,
the James Bond novel and movie.

The
Women Of Galba finds Garth dealing with an alien group of Women's
Libbers, helping them depose the tyrant Osmer but cutting their
husbands off. In Sundance, Garth becomes a US Cavalryman in
19th century Colorado. Kotalo, greatest of all of the
medicine men, has a vision of a tall white eyed man flying in the
belly of an iron bird. Garth tries to prevent war between Sitting
Bull and General Custer, but ultimately Garth cannot change history,
merely experience what others have already lived.

The
cover of this book is what grabbed me, and the story which it was
based on certainly did not disappoint. Wolf Man Of Ausensee is
a story about Garth saving a movie star from an attempted jewel theft
after a movie premiere. The actress, Gloria Delmar, invites Garth to
her friend's 300 year old castle in Austria. Castle Schloss Ausensee
is owned by Conrad Von Ritter...who, it turns out, once sought
Gloria's hand in marriage. Garth senses something is amiss in the
castle's tower, and he is correct. It is Conrad's brother, Gunther,
who suffers from the family curse and is a werewolf.

These
strips are all incredibly well written and drawn. There are adult
overtones throughout the book, with double entendres abound. I really
enjoyed this book and hope that Book Palace reissues more Frank
Bellamy stuff. I'd also be up for a comprehensive, chronological,
complete hardcover Garth Archives-type line.

Junk
Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The
OCD zone- A few of the strips in this book originally contained
nudity and were altered or omitted for the publication of this book.

The
contents page omits the letter 't' from the title of Cloud Of
Balthus.

Special thanks to Norman Boyd for his helpful and friendly email
which helped me in my research.

I
scored this book for relatively cheap ($23 US) on eBay. Upon it's
arrival, I noticed that this book stunk. Not the old, mildewy smell
of mouldering pulp paper which I find appealing, but the musty,
blacker than black moldy smell found on books stored in damp
conditions. It gave me a headache and made me sneeze. I was
heartbroken at the prospect of not being able to read this.

Undeterred,
I set out for the hardware store and informed the employee that I
needed a mask that would shield me from mold spores. I needed to be
able to breathe for long periods of time while working with mold. The
friendly staff pointed me to this face mask with a respirator.

As
you can see, this worked. My wife came downstairs and found me like
this. She snapped a picture before bursting into laughter. I realized
after looking at this picture that, to an outsider, I may appear to
be insane. It all makes perfect sense to me, though. This book is
segregated from the rest of my collection for fear that it will
infect the rest of my beloved tomes.

DVD-style
Extras included in this book: None.

Linework
and Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. There are two pages
that look iffy. One is printed too dark, one too light. This could be
a printer error and not a restoration error.

Paper
rating: 3.5 out of 5. Decent weight uncoated stock. The paper is
yellowed, which is exactly what I fear will happen to all collected
editions with shoddy paper.

Binding
rating: 4.5 out of 5. Glued binding that has held up remarkably
well, especially considering how old and how weathered this book is.
This book has clearly been read and loved over the years.

Cardstock
cover coating rating: 3 out of 5. This cardstock cover is beat.
The previous owner(s) obviously left it in direct sunlight, as it is
faded. The coating, if any, was minimal and has all but worn off with
the seemingly endless handling that this book has had.

Wow Kris! That's dedication! The original smells of pulp paper and is very nostalgically pleasant, so you got a bum steer there pardner! Thanks for the kind words.

One correction that you wouldn't necessarily know...James Edgar wrote all these stories. He started writing for Garth in 1966 and carried on till 1977 when he and John Allard were the authors until1992, I think. Bellamy died in 1976Great blog by the way

Thank you for the compliment, Norman! Your Frank Bellamy site (linked above, folks!) was invaluable. Thank you for clarifying the writer of these strips. My early research named John Allard but I defer to your expertise on all things Bellamy.

I have Heros The Spartan as well as the Bellamy King Arthur and Bellamy Robin Hood strip books waiting for me for Christmas. I can't wait to tear into Heros!